Research Paper
E-ISSN NO : 2455-295X | VOLUME : 3 | ISSUE : 7 | JULY 2017
ADJUSTMENT BEHAVIOUR AMONG HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS G.MOHANBABU 1 | S.SUTHAKAR 2 1 MED 2
STUDENT, GRT College of Education, Tiruttani – 631209. Assistant Professor, GRT College of Education, Tiruttani – 631209.
ABSTRACT
Keywords:
INTRODUCTION
decision-maker.
Early adolescence is one of the most challenging developmental periods of the life span. During this time, the nature of interpersonal relationships changes as youngsters begin to function in a vast array of new environments. As part of these changes, the establishment of healthy relations with peers and the development of a sense of emotional well-being become increasingly important. In this chapter, we bring these two aspects of early adolescent development together to show how peer relations and emotional well-being are interrelated during this developmental period. In particular, we present a model of the associations between relationships with peers and feelings of belongingness and loneliness during early adolescence.
It achieves this by bringing him knowledge from the external world, teaching him to reason, and acquainting him with past history, so that he may be a better judge of the present. Without education, man, as it were, is shut up in a window less room. With education, he finds himself in a room with all its windows open to the outside world. In other words, people who are not educated have less opportunity to do what they want to do. A person who gets a good education will become a more dependable worker, a better citizen, and a strong consumer
The quality of parent child relationship reaches crucial stage when a youngster attains teenage. The emotional storminess of the teenagers is difficult for both parents and the teens. Fast social changes, complexities around them affect adolescent’s psychological development and any kind of deprivation in the family adds still more confusion. With time and patience, parents can assure that this period is rich and rewarding for the family. Research has indicated substantial evidence that high levels of parental involvement significantly affect adolescent wellbeing.
IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION The education is the process of instruction aimed at the all round development of individuals, providing the necessary tools and knowledge to understand and participate in day to day activities of today’s world. The importance of learning emphasizes to enable the individual to put his potentials to optimal use is self-evident. Without education, the training of human minds is incomplete. No individual is a human being in the working world until he has been educated in the proper sense. Now I'm not saying you're not a human being without education. The mind was made to be trained and without education, a person is incomplete in that sense. Education makes man a right thinker and a correct
EDUCATION SYSTEM IN INDIA The education system in India was completely different before the Britishers Invaded India. The gurukula system, where the young students goes to a teacher’s place to complete their education was completely scrapped and new education system was chosen among top priorities. Now India’s urban literacy rate is 82 % and it produces millions of graduates every year. India is one among few countries to have large pool of Engineers and scientists. The education in India is cheap compared to the developed as well as developing countries. The Government of India spends about 4.2 % of the total GDP expenditure. The languages of instruction for education in school include both regional and English and English being the preferred one. The starting age for kindergarten is 4 and pre Kindergarten education is not mandatory.
Primary The Primary education in India is considered a basic right and also compulsory. The primary education is completely free in government run schools and the highest grade is grade 5 in primary after which a student should qualify to move to secondary schools.
Secondary The secondary education spans for a duration of 5 more years. The Qualification exam after standard 10 will decide the direction of studies that could be taken in Higher
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secondary.
Higher secondary The focus of study is narrower in higher secondary which lasts for 2 years, grade 11 and 12. The fields of study include science, mathematics and science for engineering, commerce and vocational education. DEFINITIONS OF ADJUSTMENT “Adjustment is the outcome of the individuals’ attempt to deal with stress and meet his needs and also his efforts to maintain harmonious relationship with the environment” -JAMES C. COLEMAN “Adjustment means that persons must accommodate themselves in order to fit certain demands of their environment. Therefore the study of adjustment has to do with how we make such accommodation and how successfully they fit us to the demands that are made on us”. -LINGREN (1963) Adjustment in a broader sense is “All the processes directed towards the solution of problem in living”. -PERNY LONDON (1975)
SCOPE OF ADJUSTMENT The process of adjustment is characteristic of life and development of each individual. This has been stated by Learner, George and Elakubo. It may occur by becoming aware of our own behaviour and our own problems. We may become fully aware of ourselves as persons in the environment. There is a dynamic relationship between the person and his world. Neither the individual nor his world is static. Both are subject to change. Both are being acted upon and shaped continually. Any of the adjustment problems at any age level may lead to a personality disturbance in an individual who is not equipped physically and psychologically to deal with it.
KINDS OF ADJUSTMENT
members. If the child’s parents are well educated, the child may have fewer problems in home adjustment. On the other hand, if the child’s parents are not educated, there may be conflic ts and confrontations. To be able to resolve their conflicting situation, the parents may be given proper guidance and counseling, so as to enable them to give favourable and suitable treatment to their children and thus ensure good home adjustment.
iii. Emotional Adjustment The child should have good emotional adjustment. He should have the feeling of security. A feeling of insecurity often leads to maladjustment. The child should make an effort to cooperate with others so that he earns the respect and admiration of his classmates, co-workers, members of his own family, friends and associates. Satisfactory adjustment rests upon these emotional relationships. Parental rejection of child or over protection of the child is to be avoided and proper ways and means are to be adopted to develop good emotional adjustment and see that the child becomes emotionally balanced.
iv. Social Adjustment Every individual wants the recognition from the group in which he happens to live. The child also wants the recognition from other children. The child should freely mingle with elders and younger members of the society and it should lead to desirable social adjustment on the part of the children. The parents should permit them to participate in the desired social activities. He must become one of the group, learn to live with the group, and also derive the pleasure and joy from such a social experience which he should find satisfying.
INTERRELATION OF PHSYCIAL AND EMOTIONAL FACTORS a.
Children have problems in four different areas namely home, social, emotional and educational.
i. Educational Adjustment The child should have good home, social, emotional and educational adjustments. The relationship between the teacher and taught should be congenial. He should know how to adjust with his classmates. The teacher should have “unbiased” opinion on the students. He should also clear his doubts in the classroom and freely mingle with his classmates and the teachers, which will lead to better educational adjustment.
ii. Home Adjustment The child should have proper adjustment at home. He should know how to adjust with his family
Facial Expressions: Various muscles of the face including the eye, the lips the nose and the forehead undergo changes by way of twisting and taking different poses. Most of the emotions have their characteristic facial expressions; but it may not always be easy to judge the emotion from these expressions.
b. Muscular adjustments: Sometimes the entire muscular system of the body undergoes contraction and adjustments. The best example of this is perhaps the bodily changes that take place in the ‘startle reaction’. Startle response consists of a sudden movement of the head, blinking of eyes, a characteristic facial expression. c.
Gestures and movements of the hands: Gestures may sometimes involve the
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movement of the whole body. d. Voice gets affected: When excited, the voice becomes loud and high pitched. Under fear, the voice takes a sinking and low tone. e.
Breathing and heart beat also get affected under emotions. Sometimes they may be retarded and at other times they are accelerated.
ADJUSTMENT DISORDERS Adjustment disorder is a change or regression in behaviour or emotions in response to a specific environmental change in a child’s life. A child struggling with this disorder will respond to the stress of change in a way that is excessive when compared to what is considered normal for that child. This disorder may also appear in children who are going through a change in placement. For example, a child who moves to a new foster home or is adopted into a new home even the most wonderful, loving home ever imagined may experience an adjustment disorder. Adjustment Disorder can manifest itself as anxiety, depression, or it may be indicated by behaviour that is uncharacteristic for specific a child. There is not a specific type of event that will necessarily lead to an adjustment disorder, and not all children will respond to unsettling events in the same way. For example, an unsettling event could happen to several children even children in the same family—but only one of the children may experience an adjustment disorder. The way a child responds to an unsettling event may also be affected by a child’s cultural background and everyday experience. Adjustment disorders occur in both males and females and can occur in children of all ages. BEHAVIOUR Behaviour or behaviour is the range of actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with their environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the physical environment. It is the response of the system or organism to various stimuli or inputs, whether internal or external, consciousor subconscious, ov ert or covert, and voluntary or involuntary. Human behaviour (and that of other organisms and mechanisms) can be common, unusual, acceptable, or unacceptable. Humans evaluate the acceptability of behavior using social norms and regulate behavior by means of social control. In sociology, behavior is considered as having no meaning, being not directed at other people and this is the most basic human action, although it can play a part in diagnosis of disorders such as the autism spectrum disorders. Animal behavior is studied in comparative psychology, ethnology, behavioral ecology and sociobiology. According to moral values, human behavior may also depend upon the common,
usual, unusual, acceptable or unacceptable behaviour of others. Behaviour became an important construct in early 20th century psychology with the advent of the paradigm known subsequently as "behaviorism." Behaviorism was a reaction against "faculty" psychology which purported to see into or understand the mind without the benefit of scientific testing. Behaviorism insisted on working only with what can be seen or manipulated and in the early views of John B. Watson, a founder of the field, nothing was inferred as to the nature of the entity that produced the behavior. Subsequent modifications of Watson's perspective and that of "classical conditioning" led to the rise of operant conditioning or "radical behaviorism," a theory advocated by B.F. Skinner, which took over the academic establishment up through the 1950s and was synonymous with "behaviorism" for many.
Children’s Behaviour Reflects Their Level of Development When adults recognize that growth entails both experimenting and making mistakes, and that difficulties are a normal, expected part of children’s development, they tend to be more accepting and patient with socially unacceptable behaviour. It is important to have reasonable expectations which are consistent with each child’s developmental abilities. When adults have an understanding of appropriate developmental issues for children, they are more effective in dealing with them. Caregivers who take the time to offer developmentally appropriate verbal explanations and guidance help children gain confidence, competence, and social problem-solving skills.
ADJUSTMENT BEHAVIOR Adjustment is a behavioral process by which a person maintains balance among various needs that one encounters at a given point of time. Each and every situation of life demands that the person concerned should be able to effectively perform in accordance with some guiding principles and should be able to strike a balance among various forces. Adjustment is defined as a process wherein one builds variations in the behaviour to achieve harmony with oneself, others or the environment with an aim to maintain the state of equilibrium between the individual and the environment. Adjustment has been analyzed as an achievement as well as a process in psychology. Interpreting adjustment as an achievement would necessitate effective performance in doing what one was expected to and engaged in. This would mean judging the quality on certain parameters. However, psychologists have been interested to examine adjustment as a process. This entails examining the interaction of the individual with the external world. If the relationship between the individual and his/
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her environment is in accordance with the norms then the adjustment is achieved. The behaviou r of the person concerned would be considered normal. Gross deviation from the norms demand clinical investigations and interventions. Such deviations are defined as maladjustment. Severe deviations can be classified as abnormal behavior. The Psychology of Adjustment course is offered in order to help the students relate their real life experiences to the constructs and theories of psychology. Striking the balance between mental health and personal adjustment, this course uses scientific approach to examine key human processes. Besides fostering critical examination of human behavior, it might help see things in a broader perspective. It does provide an opportunity for self-reflection and understanding
ADJUSTMENT PROCESS Adjustment refers to a process wherei n one builds variations in the behavior to achieve harmony with oneself, others or the environment with an aim to maintain the state of equilibrium between the individual and the environment. It is imperative that adjustment will encourage certain changes so that the optimum relationship between the self and surrounding can be achieved and maintained. Take example of someone who has been diagnosed with life threatening disease. What are the possible reactions? One might be very tense anticipating imminent death, someone else might show denial thinking how can this happen to him/ her whereas someone could show anger thinking why him or her. There exists a whole range of possibilities. Psychological adjustment is that critical processes that will help the person achieve harmony with his/ her current state, thus also leading to acceptance. Satisfaction of psychologic al needs through social networks facilitates social and cultural adjustments. Human beings learn the dynamics of the network from these experience s. Changes in the environment triggers the interpersonal activities that can help achieve the needs. This serves two purposes meeting needs in the changed environment and increasing expectancy of meeting needs in the future. Thus, adjustment process engages inner-inner as well as an inner-outer relationship. This relationship could be harmonious or conflicting. The harmony and conflict within and among one’s behavior, value-belief systems, affective reactions, etc works as major determinants of adjustment. It is a continuous process but most of us are able to strike it. The very understanding of this process also makes us appreciate whether the other person is adjusted or not. Discordance and inconsistency within and among these determinants is interpreted as maladjustment.
A commonly understandable process of adjustment comprises of four fractions. Initially one has a need or motive that makes him/ her persist with goal directed behavior. In an order to overcome the barriers, one explores various activities to overcome it. This is the moment when one also experiences thwarting of the needs. Subsequently, many of the exploratory behavior are eliminated. One learns how to achieve the goal. Successful accomplishment makes the person develop perfection in goal directed behavior. However, the barriers are largely unanticipated and this makes adjustment a continuous process.
CONCLUSION Our emotions control most of our behaviour, these can be desirable behaviours or undesirable. Many of the choices we make in life from marriage to careers and education all stem from our emotions. The adjustment of school children is determined by their gender, the class in which they are studying, the medium of instruction adopted in their school, the type of management of the school and their parents education and occupation. Differences across the children with regard to their adjustment are noted� mainly with regard to the school in which they are studying. While family adjustment is more higher classes, academic adjustment, is better among children from schools that are founded by the government, and emotional adjustment is higher for students from English and privately managed schools. Further parental education and occupation significantly influenced the emotional adjustment of the school children. The study is sure find some usefulness in the field of education and findings of the study can serve as a database for further research. The purpose of the present investigation was to study adjustment behavior among higher secondary school Students. The study is sure find some usefulness in the field of education and findings of the study can serve as a database for further research.
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